Trump Accuses Mueller of a Personal Vendetta as Calls for Impeachment Grow

Even for a president recognized for contradicting himself, Mr. Trump’s divergent statements have been notably head-spinning and underscored his fitful responses to the report issued by the particular counsel.

Mr. Trump has gone forwards and backwards in his evaluation of Mr. Mueller’s report. When it was first delivered to the Justice Department in March, the president stated, “The Mueller report was great. It could not have been better.” A month later, after a redacted model was launched publicly, he referred to as it a “total ‘hit job.’” Just this week, throughout a information convention in Tokyo, he referred to as it “a beautiful report.”

Likewise, after the report was first delivered, Mr. Trump stated that Mr. Mueller had acted honorably. He refused to repeat that characterization when requested by reporters on Thursday.

Instead, Mr. Trump revived his private assaults on Mr. Mueller, asserting that the particular counsel ought to by no means have been chosen within the first place. He charged that Mr. Mueller, who was appointed by Mr. Trump’s personal deputy lawyer normal, was conflicted as a result of he did not get the job he actually needed, F.B.I. director, and since he had a dispute with Mr. Trump over charges at one of his golf golf equipment.

Those assertions have been addressed and countered in Mr. Mueller’s ultimate report. Mr. Mueller, who beforehand served as F.B.I. director in two administrations, didn’t go to the White House trying for a job, Stephen Okay. Bannon, who was then the president’s chief strategist, advised investigators.

The report stated that when Mr. Mueller resigned from Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., in 2011, he inquired whether or not he may obtain a partial refund of his initiation charge. A membership official responded that his request can be placed on a wait listing. The report stated Mr. Mueller had no additional contact with the membership.

Mr. Bannon, the report added, “recalled telling the president that the purported conflicts were ‘ridiculous’ and that none of them was real or could come close to justifying precluding Mueller from serving as special counsel.” Donald F. McGahn II, who was then Mr. Trump’s White House counsel, likewise thought of the supposed conflicts to be “silly” and hardly disqualifying, based on the report.